La Vuelta 2022 – Stage 09 [FULL STAGE]

August 28, 2022

La Vuelta 2022 – Stage 9 – Villaviciosa – Les Praeres. Nava : 171,4 km

As the final Grand Tour of the year, the Vuelta a España is seen by many as a last chance saloon for those riders who have failed to hit their seasonal objectives. In reality the race is much more than that, often surpassing the other two three-week races in terms of action and edge-of-your-seat entertainment. This is a race with the steepest summit finishes in professional cycling, the anything-can-happen transitional stages, the unlikeliest breakaway victories and the most fiercely fought GC battles seen anywhere on the racing calendar. While the last three editions of La Vuelta may have been dominated by a single rider, the racing is almost always dramatic and the battle for the red jersey regularly rages until the last few days of the race. The main reason for this is the race’s route, with its truly unpredictable parcours and its anything-can-happen transitional stages. The overall standings are ever-changing, largely due to the fact that the organisers throw in mountainous stages and steep summit finishes throughout the race, rather than solely in the final week.

The steep slopes of Les Praeres brought Louis Meintjes his first career Grand Tour stage victory, the South African pulling off a come-from-behind triumph on the Asturian climb at the Vuelta a España to solo to the win from the breakaway.

As the Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert climber soared to victory, further back down the climb race leader Remco Evenepoel stamped his authority on the race, the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl leaving behind all of his GC rivals and extending his overall lead heading into Monday’s rest day.

Evenepoel took fourth on the stage, with Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan) and Edoardo Zambanini (Bahrain Victorious) taking second and third from the break. The Belgian didn’t need those podium bonus seconds, though, having crossed the line 34 seconds up on his nearest rival, Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates).

In eighth, Enric Mas (Movistar) shed a further 10 seconds to Evenepoel with Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) another two seconds back and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) losing six more seconds.

For Meintjes, the win was the sixth of his career and second of 2022. He had been part of the 10-man move that went away after a long fight early on the stage, though victory looked to have been lost after Battistella and Jimmy Janssens (Alpecin-Deceuninck) jumped away inside the final 10km.

As the strongest climber in the group, though, Meintjes made his way back on the short but brutal 3.9km climb, which averaged 12.9%. He caught and passed the lead duo at 2.5km to go and never looked back, racing on alone to the top for the biggest win of his career.

“It’s something special. I still need some time for it to set it. Actually, I’ve never been on the podium of a WorldTour race. That was one of my main goals before stopping my career,” Meintjes said after his win.

“The last few days in the mountain finished I just wasn’t quite fast enough to keep up with the GC guys. Then if I don’t get the result that way the best is to go with the breakaways. It worked out perfectly today. I was quite lucky; I tried one time and picked the right breakaway.

“It was quite a hard day and they made me do a bit more work always closing the gap and accelerating so I was spending more energy than a lot of guys and I wasn’t sure I’d still have the best legs.

“It was really hard and actually it didn’t matter if you followed the breakwawy or not. It was just a time trial to the finish.”

Evenepoel’s ride now sees him reach the rest day – and the long trip south for stage 10 – 1:12 up on second-placed Mas. Roglič is the only other rider within two minutes of the race lead at 1:53 down, while Rodríguez (2:33) and Ayuso (2:36) are the only other men within three minutes.

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